Consumer Reports Complete Guide to Health Services for Seniors : What Your Family Needs to Know About Finding and Financing, Medicare, Assisted Living, Nursing Homes, Home Care, Adult Day Care
- Book Review,
by TRUDY LIEBERMAN, Consumer Reports Editors
From Booklist
Practical advice and realistic steps to take distinguish this guide published under the auspices of the nation's foremost consumers' advice service. If at times the text is heavy going, so is the subject. For determining the actions to take to get the best health care isn't a job for dummies, though the health-care system sometimes seems to have been created by dummies or, perhaps, sharpies--huge businesses and Congress members battered by powerful interest groups--on the principle that it is easier to sell a health-care policy or a hospital program to buyers who are confused. The guide explains all the system's elements in detail, alerts the reader to potential problems, tells where to get additional information and support, and offers some helpful (if, for libraries, problematic) worksheets and cost estimates. Health-care jargon, such as the snaky-sounding retroactive disenrollments , gets explained, and every senior is advised to prepare both a health-care proxy and a living will. The 20 appendixes include Consumer Reports ratings of insurance policies, HMOs, and nursing homes. William Beatty
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Whether you're exploring options for yourself or for your aging parents, you know that navigating the world of health care services and long-term-care facilities can be a daunting task. Consumer Reports, unrivaled in its unbiased expertise, provides the essential guide to getting the best care.
Filled with hands-on practical advice in a user-friendly tone and format, this invaluable handbook will help you find the right services and secure them at the lowest cost. How can you take advantage of pharmaceutical company drug-assistance programs? What essential services should a home health aide provide? How can you calculate annual health care expenses? How do you decipher a state survey report for a nursing home? Where can you find adult day care? What should you look for in an assisted-living contract? You'll find the answers to these and hundreds of other questions in this book, including:
* The ins and outs of paying for health care services, including Medicare coverage and insurance options.
* How to find the best long-term care, whether at home or in the community, whether you're looking at assisted-living facilities or nursing homes -- and how to pay for it.
* City-by-city ratings for Medicare HMOs and Medicare supplement insurance policies, as well as a guide to how well your state is monitoring nursing homes.
* Easy-to-use worksheets and tables to help you figure out your assets, judge an assisted-living facility, compare home care costs, evaluate an HMO drug plan, and much, much more.
* Comprehensive appendixes to guide you to state-by-state information on insurance counseling, advocacy groups for the elderly, other helpful organizations, and more.
From the Inside Flap
Whether you're exploring options for yourself or for your aging parents, you know that navigating the world of health care services and long-term-care facilities can be a daunting task. Consumer Reports, unrivaled in its unbiased expertise, provides the essential guide to getting the best care.
Filled with hands-on practical advice in a user-friendly tone and format, this invaluable handbook will help you find the right services and secure them at the lowest cost. How can you take advantage of pharmaceutical company drug-assistance programs? What essential services should a home health aide provide? How can you calculate annual health care expenses? How do you decipher a state survey report for a nursing home? Where can you find adult day care? What should you look for in an assisted-living contract? You'll find the answers to these and hundreds of other questions in this book, including:
* The ins and outs of paying for health care services, including Medicare coverage and insurance options.
* How to find the best long-term care, whether at home or in the community, whether you're looking at assisted-living facilities or nursing homes -- and how to pay for it.
* City-by-city ratings for Medicare HMOs and Medicare supplement insurance policies, as well as a guide to how well your state is monitoring nursing homes.
* Easy-to-use worksheets and tables to help you figure out your assets, judge an assisted-living facility, compare home care costs, evaluate an HMO drug plan, and much, much more.
* Comprehensive appendixes to guide you to state-by-state information on insurance counseling, advocacy groups for the elderly, other helpful organizations, and more.
About the Author
TRUDY LIEBERMAN, a journalist for more than thirty years, is director of the Center for Consumer Health Choices at Consumers Union, the parent organization of Consumer Reports magazine, and author of How to Plan for a Secure Retirement and Slanting the Story: The Forces That Shape the News. She is one of the country's leading investigative journalists today writing on health care issues, and she has received numerous awards, including two National Magazine awards and ten National Press Club awards.
Other books from the Consumer Reports library include the Consumer Reports Money Book, Consumer Reports Guide to Baby Products, and the Consumer Reports New Car Buying Guide.
For more information, visit www.ConsumerReports.org.
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